Abstract
‘MODERN MAN’ IN EASTERN ASIA1 “THE Upper Cave” of Choukoutien, discovered in 1930, and excavated in 1933 by Mr. W. C. Pei, is situated at the top of the hill about 175 m. above sea-level, opening to the north and north-east side of the hill. It represents a dissolution cavity in the original limestone massif and is completely separated from the Sinanthropus beds except at the entrance and at tho bottom of tho so-called ‘lower recess’. It seems, therofore, that at the time of Sinanthropus, the cave was not accessible, but was reopened later in Upper Palæolithic times. The deposit is quite different from that of the Sinanthropus cave, being a grey loam intermixed with small angular limestone fragments. In it was discovered an unimaginable wealth of bones of fossil animals: hares, deer, tigers, bear, hyæna, ostrich and representatives of other genera.
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References
Weidenreich, Franz, “On the Earliest Representatives of Modern Mankind recovered on the Soil of East Asiaâ. Peking Natural History Bull., 18, 3 (1939).
Pel., W. C., “On the Upper Cave Industry.â Peking Natural History Bull., 13, 3 (1939).
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Recent Researches on Early Man in China. II. Nature 144, 1097–1098 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/1441097a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1441097a0